Detroit-based App, ‘Dot’s Home’ Awarded Apple Best App of 2022 for Cultural Impact

Apple unveiled the winners of the 2022 App Store Awards and Detroit-based app Dot’s Home won the Cultural Impact Award.  Dot’s Home, developed by Detroit-based producer Paige Wood is a storytelling game that showcases the harmful systems that can inform perceptions of race and background. The interactive experience follows a young Black woman as she travels through time to relive key moments in her family’s history and see how race, place and choice impacted their lives. By inserting players into scenarios where they have to make choices about how and where to live in the midst of redlining, urban renewal, and gentrification, the app challenges users to question the fairness of society’s systems.

Young Black Woman in Detroit

“Dot’s Home” is a single-player, 2D, narrative-driven video game that follows a young Black woman in Detroit living in her grandmother‘s beloved home, as she travels through time to relive key moments in her family’s history where race, place, and home collide in difficult choices.

“This year’s App Store Award winners reimagined our experiences with apps that delivered fresh, thoughtful, and genuine perspectives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “From self-taught solo creators to international teams spanning the globe, these entrepreneurs are making a meaningful impact, and represent the ways in which apps and games influence our communities and lives.”  

Created by People of Color and for People of Color

The Rise-Home Stories Project has created something often impossible in the gaming industry: a fully-fleshed out narrative video game created by people of color and for people of color.

The game was released in October and is available for free on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, itch.io, and Steam. It’s one of five projects specifically designed to work at the intersection of race, housing, and land justice. Dot’s Home was several years in the making and offered community organizers and gaming creatives the opportunity to work together, create something meaningful, and build life-changing relationships in the process.